Mission Report: Iraq, 2023 (DOW-UAP-D20)

A U.S. military operator reported observing “several bright objects maneuvering quickly” west to east northeast. The operator reported achieving a track on the UAP via an onboard targeting pod for approximately 20 seconds. The report describes that UAP then dimmed and disappeared from the targeting pod. All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a

This document is a Mission Report (MISREP), a standardized reporting form the U.S. Military uses to record the circumstances surrounding its operations. U.S. military services often use MISREPs to report Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) to AARO. The GENTEXT, or “general text” section of these reports often contains important qualitative, contextual information, distinguishing it from the more quantitative, or numerical, data found elsewhere in the report. A U.S. military operator reported observing “several bright objects maneuvering quickly” west to east northeast. The operator reported achieving a track on the UAP via an onboard targeting pod for approximately 20 seconds. The report describes that UAP then dimmed and disappeared from the targeting pod. All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.

**Released as part of PURSUE Release 01 (May 8, 2026).** The Department of War published the following primary-source records:

- **DOW-UAP-D20, Mission Report, Iraq, 2023** (Department of War, 2023-03-31 · Iraq) — 6 pages.

Source integrity: SHA-256 `71ca8826db94d615…`

*Skeleton import — comprehensive narrative analysis pending. Sources are linked above; OCR-extracted text from the page images is available in the [PURSUE Open Atlas dataset](https://huggingface.co/datasets/alex-zhang42/ufo-pursue-open-atlas) (CC0).*

### From the declassified record

**Excerpted narrative (verbatim, with redactions indicated):**

> ~~(S//REL TO USA, FVEY)~~ 311901ZMAR23 - *[REDACTED — 1.4(a)]* *[REDACTED — 1.4(a)]* FLT), A 2-SHIP OF F-16CM, TOOK OFF FROM PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE (OEPS) ISO OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE. *[REDACTED — 1.4(a)]* FLT WAS FRAGGED TO CONDUCT DCA IN THE ESSA (2100-0000). MISSION WAS FLOWN AS FRAGGED.

> ~~(S//REL TO USA, FVEY)~~ 2007

*Direct excerpt from the declassified document. Full document linked above.*

Source documents

DOW-UAP-D20, Mission Report, Iraq, 2023
Department of War via PURSUE Release 01 (May 8, 2026)

Primary sourceU.S. Department of War — PURSUE Release 01